Georgia

Constitutional Provisions

Article 15(1) of the 1995 Constitution of Georgia (as amended) provides that: "Everyone has the inviolable right to life and this right shall be protected by law." According to Article 17:

1. Honour and dignity of an individual is inviolable.

2. Torture, inhuman, cruel treatment and punishment or treatment and punishment infringing upon honour and dignity shall be impermissible.

Article 25 governs the right to freedom of assembly:

1. Everyone, except members of the armed forces and Ministry of Internal Affairs, has the right to public assembly without arms either indoors or outdoors without prior permission. 

2. The necessity of prior notification of the authorities may be established by law in the case where a public assembly or manifestation is held on a public thoroughfare.

3. Only the authorities shall have the right to break up a public assembly or manifestation in case it assumes an illegal character.

The Constitution does not regulate the use of force by the police or other law enforcement agency.

Treaty Adherence

Global Treaties

Regional Treaties

National Legislation

Police Use of Force

Law enforcement in Georgia is conducted under the auspices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The use of force is regulated by the Police Law. According to Article 31(1) of this law, to perform police functions,

a police officer may use fit and proportionate coercive measures only in the case of necessity and to the extent that shall ensure achievement of legitimate objectives.

According to Article 33:

c) tear gas, pepper spray, sonic weapons, and non-lethal weapons (including non-lethal shells) are used to repel an attack on a person, a police officer and/or protected facility; to prevent mass and group violations of legal order; when detaining a person who has committed a crime or an action posing threat to the public at large, or when forcing such person to leave an occupied territory, vehicle or building and construction that the person is using as a shelter

d) flash-bang device of psychological effect to temporarily disorient senses is used to repel an attack on a state and/or public facility, on a person and/or a police officer; to detain a person who is engaged in an armed resistance; to expel a criminal or a dangerous person posing a threat to the public from buildings and construction sites, plots of land, and vehicles that they have broken into, and to release a person who has been unlawfully deprived of liberty...

g) water-cannons, armoured car and other special transportation means are used to suppress mass violations of legal order, to repel a group attack on the state and/or public facilities, to stop a vehicle by force if the driver does not obey a police officer's demand to stop; to detain an armed criminal...

k) an electroshock device is used to repel an attack on a person, a police officer and/or a protected facility....

Article 34 of the Police Law governs the right to use firearms. Under paragraph 5, a police officer may use a firearm as a last resort:

a) to defend a person and him/herself from a threat to their lives and/or health

b) to release a person who has been unlawfully deprived of liberty

c) based on prior information, to prevent the escape of a person who has been detained for having committed a violent act or extremely grievous crime

d) to prevent a violent crime if a person resists a police officer

e) to repel an attack on a protected facility, state body and/or civic organisation....

This is more permissive than international law allows.

Under paragraph 6: "The active use of a firearm against a person shall be preceded by the following verbal warning: ‘Police! Freeze or I will shoot!’ followed by a warning shot. In the case of necessity, a warning shot might not be fired."

Police Oversight

No external independent mechanism exists speifically for investigating complaints against the police although the Public Defender (Ombudsman) can hear allegations of excessive police use of force. In its 2014 Concluding Observations on Georgia, the Human Rights Committee called on Georgia to

pursue its plans to establish an independent and impartial body to investigate allegations of abuse by police and other law enforcement officers, including torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.

The Prosecutor General is competent to deal with complaints against the police involving criminality and it is possible for citizens to make a complaint to that office. The General Inspection Department of the Ministry of the Interior is responsible for investigating offences committed by the police and carrying out disciplinary action.

Caselaw

Global

Views and Concluding Observations of United Nations Treaty Bodies

In January 2025, human rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council urged the Government of Georgia to take concrete measures to prevent further violence and to investigate allegations of excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, torture and ill-treatment, and arbitrary detention of peaceful demonstrators and media workers during protests that erupted in the country in November and December 2024. “We have received allegations of intentional physical violence, threats, intimidation and retaliation against peaceful protesters, human rights defenders and journalists by law enforcement officials in Georgia, as well as by others without uniforms or identifying insignia”, the experts said. They stressed that the scale of these allegations and the gravity of the harm reportedly inflicted on protesters and those later detained may constitute torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. “The information we have received suggests that these incidents may not have been isolated and point to command responsibility,” the experts said.

There are credible reports that the police fired rubber bullets, used water cannons, pepper spray and other chemical irritants indiscriminately against the demonstrators. Hundreds of people were reportedly injured, with an unusually high proportion suffering serious head and facial injuries. Many protesters were reportedly arrested and denied access to a lawyer or to inform their families of their whereabouts. “We have received disturbing information that many detainees have been verbally abused, subjected to prolonged and repeated beatings, threatened with rape or the breaking of body parts, and denied medical care,” the experts said.

In its 2022 Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Georgia, the Human Rights Committee was

gravely concerned at the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials against protestors, activists and journalists in dispersing assemblies, including in June and November 2019 in Tbilisi, and at the delay in investigating such abuse and bringing the perpetrators to justice. It [was] also concerned about the incidents on 5 and 6 July 2021, when members of radical groups attacked lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, human rights defenders and journalists, resulting in the disruption of the Tbilisi Pride march, and about the failure of the competent authorities to provide adequate protection for those individuals and to bring all perpetrators, including the organizers of the attacks, to justice in a timely manner 

It called on the authorities to conduct "independent, impartial, prompt and effective investigations into allegations of the excessive use of force, including deadly force, by law enforcement officials, and bring the perpetrators to justice". 

In its 2014 Concluding Observations on Georgia, the Human Rights Committee had expressed its concern 

that some investigations are still pending, namely those: (a) into the excessive use of force by law enforcement and/or prison officers during the March 2006 disturbance at Tbilisi Prison No. 5; (b) into the ill-treatment of prisoners at Gldani Prison in Tbilisi, Ksani Prison No. 15, Kutaisi Prison No. 2, Rustavi Prison No. 6 and Zugdidi Prison No. 4; and (c) into the violent dispersal of peaceful demonstrations on 7 November 2007, 15 June 2009 and 3 January 2011 and the incidents in Mereti (26 June 2012) and Karaleti (12 July 2012), during which journalists were physically and verbally assaulted.

Regional

Tsaava and ors v. Georgia

The applicants in the case, which concerns the dispersal of a major protest on 20-21 June 2019 from the front of the Parliament building in Tbilisi, are 26 Georgian nationals. The protest was sparked by a prominent member of the Russian Duma sitting in the Speaker’s chair in the Georgian Parliament and delivering a speech in Russian. The applicants (with one exception) were either participants in the demonstration or journalists reporting on the protest. Most of them allegedly received injuries from, among other things, the authorities’ use of rubber bullets (“kinetic impact projectiles”). The others were allegedly subjected to excessive use of physical force by the police. A judgment by a Chamber of the Court on 7 May 2024 found violations were found of the procedural aspect of Article 3 in respect of 24 of the applicants. The Chamber refrained from taking a decision regarding the merits of the substantive aspect of Article 3. On 1 August 2024 the applicants requested that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber, which was accepted by a panel of the Grand Chamber the following month. No judgment had been rendered by the Grand Chamber at the time of writing.

Aghdgomelashvili and Japaridze v. Georgia (2020)

This case concerned abusive police conduct during search of premises of an LGBT NGO motivated by homophobic and/or transphobic hatred. In December 2009, police officers in civilian clothing entered the IF office and, and in the presence of the applicants and others, conducted a search of the premises. Upon discovering the nature of the NGO, the officers became aggressive and displayed homophobic behaviour. A threat to use physical force was followed by one of the police officers saying that he wished he could burn the place down. Georgia was held responsible for degrading treatment in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention.

Dvalishvili v. Georgia (2012)

This case concerned an alleged serious assault on the applicant by three police officers who demanded that he confess to a crime. 

The European Court of Human Rights observed that the parties advanced different explanations as to the origin of the applicant’s injuries. On the one hand, the applicant gave a consistent account corroborated by medical evidence..., according to which he had been beaten at the Tskaltubo police department. On the other hand, the authorities’ version, supported by the statements of the police officers and the victim, was that the injuries at issue could had been caused when the applicant had fallen on concrete slabs whilst fleeing the crime scene, or when the police officers had restrained him.

The Court observed that while "exclusively focusing on the applicant’s injuries to his face",

the Government had simply overlooked the fact that the applicant had also suffered long-lasting damage to his health, such as an internal head injury and concussion, and that several other bruises had been found on different parts of his body.... The relevant national authorities in their domestic decisions failed to challenge the medical conclusion of 21 March 2006..., whilst the Government, in their pleadings before the Court, simply dismissed the forensic conclusion of 25 October 2006; they stated that this conclusion had not proved the fact of the applicant’s ill-treatment. Hence, by overlooking the relevant medical information, the Government did not take the trouble of contesting the expert’s conclusion that the applicant’s various injuries could not be explained by a single fall....

National

Georgia has reported that in 2013–16, criminal prosecutions were launched against 127 persons following allegations of ill-treatment committed by prison staff and law enforcement officials. 

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